THE LATEST "SCOOP"

Monday, October 24, 2011

Don't be shocked......I know it's been forever since I posted anything on here. But, I must show you my two adorable spooks in their Halloween Costumes:

At the end of Halloween last year, we bought Annalise an adorable witch costume. Sadly, she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She went through our costume box and fell in love with the Devil....I mean, the devil costume that was once worn by Lauren. She's a darn cute devil if you ask me!

Lauren Elizabeth has been a bit trickier to figure out. She is finally 14 and can go to our church dances. Well, this past Saturday they had a Halloween costume dance. When you look at the store for costumes for teens, sadly they have plunging necklines and are super short. So, what did we do, we went to Pinterest and searched for just the right costume. We found it! We made a Diction Fairy costume for Lauren Elizabeth. Why is this so perfect for Lauren Elizabeth? She loves words, she loves to read, she just loves it all! Hence Perfect! Anyway, we found the idea HERE, so if you want to make your own Diction Fairy, you can find all the nitty gritty details there. Anyway, we added just a few things to the costume. We put 3 paper flowers on the right of the tutu, made a paper flower hair clip, and made her wand absolutely adorable. Are you waiting with anticipation to see her cute costume?? Here you go......

Sunday, March 6, 2011

I have been thinking about writing this post for a couple of weeks now. Finally decided to sit down and get it off my mind.

Annalise started 4 year old pre-school this past September. She LOVES going to school. She started school knowing 1 letter. The letter A. She knew that's what her name started with and she knew it was an "A". I was a little concerned. I had tried and tried to help her learn the alphabet, but she had no desire. I became really concerned one day when I was in her classroom and noticed how many of the kids could write their full name. Well, she couldn't even write an A.

Immediately made an appointment with her teacher and we went over things with her. Now, keep in mind Annalise was Gross Motor delayed when she was a baby. We knew that would most likely result in a Fine Motor delay, which it did. At the beginning of school, she couldn't consistently hold a pencil the correct way. We'd correct her, she'd get frustrated, it was a viscous cycle. When we met with her teacher, she said that yes
she was behind, but she could most likely catch up and we could re-evaluate things toward the end of the year and determine if she should move onto Kindergarten or if we should hold her back an extra year.

As time goes on, I am so overjoyed that she has made great progress. She knows the majority of the alphabet and can write some of the letters. She still struggles with writing as we work on the fine motor issues, but, she is holding the pencil the write way, she's just not got a lot of strength behind it.

Recently, I asked her teacher if she saw any signs of ADD or ADHD as my sister in law mentions that Annalise reminds her of her son and I believe he has ADHD. She said that she definitely doesn't have ADHD, the hyper part is definitely not an issue, but she does tend to zone out on occasion. But, not anything note worthy. At least for now! But, she then brought up again Annalise's fine motor issues. So, back to working on fine motor every chance we get. Might even be time to get her back in Occupational Therapy.

The progress she has made is huge! I am always very conscientious about where Annalise is at because her Birth Mom and Birth Mom's half brothers all have cognitive learning disabilities. So, if something manifests itself in Annalise, I want to make sure we are on top of it and helping her to be the very best she can be. Getting her the help that she may need up front.

We are so blessed to have Annalise in our lives. She is a ray of sunshine and I love seeing the wheels turn in her head as she learns new things. What a joy she is!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Like many families in the LDS community, we try really hard to have our Family Home Evening on Monday nights. Some nights we don't succeed, but this past Monday we did it! According to our FHE board, Lauren had the lesson. She found a great story in the New Era about showing love towards your family and how important it is. I grew up in a family where we didn't express our love towards one another or didn't hug each other much. If you were called a geek or a goon, the translation to this was "I love you". I know just a little twisted, but it's how we grew up and we all seemed to survive and are pretty good people. So, in my own little family, sometimes I feel like I go overboard. I am always hugging Lauren and Annalise. Annalise still likes it, Lauren I think tolerates it. I am constantly telling them how much I love them. Again, Annalise loves it and Lauren tolerates it. Since giving the lesson, Lauren has been super sweet and loving. I just love that girl! She is such a wonderful 13 (almost 14 year old, but whose counting? Oh wait, she is!). Anyway, the point of my post is this. At the end of her lesson, Lauren bore a beautiful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She then got emotional and said, "I know that Heavenly Father knows me and answers my prayers." Of course, I got a little teary eyed myself. She is so much better than I was at that age! She is solid and knows what she wants out of life. Anyway, I just wanted to share about my sweet daughter. I am so blessed to have two amazing daughters. Can life get any better?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

I remember telling you last post about my wonderful Christmas gift Devin gave to me. He built me two benches to act as window seats. He got the design plans from the great website Ana-White. She has amazing and simple plans! I think you should go check them out! But before you go, take a peek at mine. Notice, I made new window toppers as well. I will eventually make a cushion to go on top of the benches, but that's another project.

View 1

View 2

Up Close

I painted them a yummy Black Suede from Behr using the paint and primer combo paint (which I love) and sanded the edges to look worn. Add the black canvas baskets from Wal-Mart which are filled with a bunch of my crafty stuff. It has really helped me to stay organized. I LOVE my benches and I think Devin did a fabulous job on his first ever wood project. I already have my wish list made over at Ana-White for his next project. Thanks Devin! You're the best!

Friday, December 31, 2010

I guess I should really call my blog the Procrastination Station. I always have grandiose plans of blogging, and then I get easily side tracked. Besides, I do believe our lives are pretty normal, nothing exciting happening here. So, I'll just give you a brief run down of what's happening lately.

Lovely Lauren

Tonight is the New Years Eve Dance at our church Devin and I will be chaperoning (I'm already tired just thinking about it), and Lauren will NOT be there. One more year and she'll have her moment. She's dying to go to church dances but unfortunately the age limit of 14 is enforced by her Bishop (her daddy). It's all good though. She's had a fabulous Semester in 8th grade taking 3 High School credit classes and doing wonderfully well in all of them. One of her classes is a virtual class that she takes on-line. It's Chinese. Over the Christmas Break I've been helping her learn some Chinese characters. Okay, I don't really know Chinese, I just hold the flash cards and tell her if she's wrong or right. It's been fun to watch her learn these. She really gets it! She's been able to translate those characters into English and say the word or phrase in Chinese. I tell you, I'm trying to figure out where she gets her smarts from. She has got it going on!

On the boy front, yup they are still chasing her. She's broken a few hearts already this year by telling them she can't "date" until she's 16. I think the boys like her because 1.) She is cute (I am biased) 2.) She is definitely not shy around boys. She talks and jokes around with them. I have heard she even flirts. But she denies that part! Currently word on the street is that she likes a boy that goes to our church and he likes her too. They sure are texting a lot.....constantly.....

Adorable Annalise

My sweet little baby is growing up. She will be 5 in 4 short months! Time is flying by much too quickly! We pass the elementary school daily and she will say to me, "Mommy, your baby is going to go to kindergarten!" To which I reply, "I know, my sweet little baby, I will miss her!" We do this daily. She is so excited to start school. She loves pre-school, but, she wants to go to the "big kid" school! It's pretty cute! She's learning the alphabet and doing great in pre-school. So very proud of her!

This past fall we put Annalise in dance and she LOVES it! She was a bit shy in the beginning for performances, but now, she does awesome! She has been asking for several weeks if it was time for dance again. We had most of Dec. off and will start back next week. She's pretty stoked about it!

Lisee has learned to navigate the computer and likes spending time on pbskids. She loves the spining wheel as she calls it and loves playing Curious George or Super Why. Considering they are learning games, it's a pretty fabulous thing for her!

Darling DevinDevin is busy, busy, busy! He just got a promotion at work and is now Director of Applications. Essentially he "directs" all of the computer applications the hospital uses.At least I think that's what he does. He was definitely in the right place at the right time and everything worked out. There was talk of this happening since October and it finally all came through in December. So proud of him!

Tithing Settlement is now done! Hip, hip, hooray! He has been Bishop of our ward now for 1 1/2 years and has survived it all. Between work and church, it keeps him out of trouble and very busy. He works in an occasional golf tournament during work so he gets to have some "Devin Time". Other than that, it's work and church, work and church, throw in a date night with one of us girls, and then more work and more church. We sure do appreciate him and his diligence with church and hard work for us! He's pretty darn great!

Oh, I remember something about Devin. He made for me two bench seats that will go in our Kitchen like a window seat. He built them! I found the plans and he did it and did a pretty darn great job! He can't wait to build something else, and I will let him! I'm pretty stoked about them. When they are finished (I need to paint them), I will show them off. They are wonderful! I'm pretty stoked about them!

Kooky KathyWell, I couldn't think of anything good to go along with Kathy. So, kooky it is. It's probably pretty true anyway!

I don't know quite what I've been up to lately. I feel like I've been super busy and yet I can't think of what with. So, we'll just leave it at that! Oh, I know, I gave up Coke back in July and haven't had one since. Very rarely do I drink carbonated drinks. It's wonderful. I'm a water girl. Which is odd to say since I used to hate water. Now, that's pretty much all I drink. Considering this was a New Year's Resolution from like 2 years ago.......well you know, I have no will power. But, I feel like I have accomplished something! Also, since July I have lost 13 pounds. As soon as my treadmill comes (it should be here any day), I will be working on getting my next 5 pounds off. I'm hoping by this time next year I can say that I've lost another 15-20 pounds. I only focus on 5 at a time so it feels not as overwhelming. So far it's worked!I hope ya'll have a wonderful and safe New Year! One of my many goals for the New Year is to be a better blogger. Hopefully I will succeed!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Just wanted to point you to a giveaway I'm having on my digital scrapbooking blog, The Latest Scoop, Too. It's for a digital greeting card designed just for whoever wins. If you're interested, go check it out, HERE.

About Me

kladle

I am a stay at home mom to two wonderful girls (ages 14 and 5). I have been married for 20 years to a wonderful guy. My Family is the very most important thing in my life. Aside from them, I love scrapbook paper, ribbon, buttons and can't get enough of them. I like making cards and paper crafts with them. I began doing digi-scrapping a month or so ago and have gone gang busters! I love it! I like simple and quick things when doing crafts. I like to see progress quickly! I also enjoy an occasional sewing project. Of course, I LOVE to shop!!